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October 4, 2022 Our new Giveaway, A New Cria, and a Roof Mixup

Lord, have mercy; the last two days have been trying. The day started well enough, and then it went rapidly downhill.

And did Great-grandma tell you there was a doctor involved? You know, those people in scrubs who attack babies and poke needles into their legs?

Dan had to watch the CBW, which is not an issue, but he had a medical appointment. He took her in the car seat to the doctor. She watched like a baby hawk in case one of those nurses would whip out a needle, since the last time she was here, she got shots fired into both legs and she was having none of it. No people in scrubs came near her except to smile. Nothing happened, as soon as they left she was her burbling normal baby self again. They headed for home. They did not realize what was going on. Dan parked across the street since the driveway was blocked by construction trucks.

As he was leaving, the folks we had contracted with to do the garage roof came by and blocked the driveway with their truck and a big orange dumpster. He waved at them as he left; the foreman said they’d gotten here late due to truck troubles. Nothing was said other than that and Dan headed for the doctor. He figured they’d have the shingles off the garage before he got back. The appointment went well. That is the last normal thing that happened that day.

Dan got back to find they had not taken the shingles off the garage, they’d torn them off the roof of our house, which didn’t need to be replaced. Since the owner, the boss, who set up the job had not specified garage on the estimate, they figured it was the house roof and acted accordingly. Then our dogs got out: Fennec started chasing the chickens and managed to get one down before Dan could catch him and toss the dog in the barn til I got home. The other two dogs were caught and got out again. Dan fixed the fence where they’d dug out. And the men kept tearing shingles off the wrong roof.

Fennec might look innocent but he’s rough on our laying hens.

Let me tell you catching Pomeranians who are upset over strangers in the yard is not an easy thing to do with a baby in a backpack on your back, but Dan fought mightily and got that done. He went back to explain to the foreman they were destroying the wrong roof, came back only to have one of the workmen, who on break decided to go wander down and check out the barnyard animals, come dashing back to tell the other guys (5 others) there was baby llama (it’s an alpaca) in the back with a new baby, just born, still wet with some of the sac still on it and everything, sitting there and the other five tore down to see and take selfies, which of course panicked the herd. Dan had to go in, again, with the CBW still on his back having a wonderful time at the excitement, the noise, and the animals; cooing, giggling and laughing out loud.

Grandda is just the bestest pack mule.

Dan gave the animals some grain to calm them down, forgot to call the owner of the garage business to straighten out the mess, and the foreman came up and told him since the house shingles were more than one layer deep, it would cost another $900 to the estimate that never got done, we got a garage estimate. At this point, our $4400 job is coasting towards a clean ten thousand and no one has mentioned getting the garage roof done WHICH WAS WHAT NEEDED THE WORK IN THE FIRST PLACE! And poor Tbear, who works nights, is trying to sleep upstairs in his bedroom with 4 hysterical cats, and the banging and walking over the roof are the largest squirrels they’d ever heard, but he slept on, dreaming of a giant squirrel orgy somewhere nearby. The Siamese cats howled most of the day, when they weren’t burrowing under the covers for comfort. He has 4 Siamese. They’re spoiled. They’re idiots. End of that.

They were cute as kittens but right now, they’re spaced out as adults.

Dan finally got the foreman to understand that they were doing the wrong roof, the foreman called the boss who confirmed that. There were no shingles on my house by that time, just bare wood, and it’s supposed to rain this weekend. Something had to be done so they went ahead and continued working on it since they certainly couldn’t leave it like that. Again, still no estimate, contract, anything. People are just blithely explaining to me they need to finish this roof before they can get to the roof I actually contracted for, and no one thinks this is fraud?

Dan is dealing with all this mess at home. I came home from a hard day at the office, (I was arguing with insurance companies and talking down crisis clients most of the day) expecting to see them all cleaning up and the garage finished. I parked across the street, came over to see them on the wrong roof. I went over to the garage to see if maybe they had gotten that done and this was some sort of surprise from Danny-I mean it would be a weird birthday present, a new roof, but I had been hinting it might be needed to be done next spring-takes a while to get Dan moving on things – but the garage roof was still there, covered in moss and leaking. Dan has been known to give me odd gifts, like a Cross pen for our 25th anniversary; long story there. Some other time. In the meantime: I went up to find Dan and to set down the three bags of groceries I had picked up on the way home which were way heavier than they needed to be, only to have Dan dash out the back door on his way to the herd, with the CBW on his back again.

Mother alpaca decided there was too much going on and wouldn’t take care of the newborn so after checking the situation, we had to make an emergency trip to Rural King for colostrum and baby milk, since mice had gotten in and destroyed our emergency bottle nipples. We came back, the roof guys were gone, our roof was naked, our garage roof was green and furry, and there was a dead squirrel on our back porch. See, the barn cats like me to feed them am and pm, and when I don’t they decide I am being a bad hunter and need help, so they catch some poor small animal and leave it on my back porch to give me the idea they really need their canned cat food, not that dry stuff Dan gave them. It was now quiet in the yard and of course, mama alpaca was now nursing and we didn’t need the baby bottles. I went back to the house and started to debrief the husband to figure out just what on earth had happened. It’s the next day and I am still trying to figure it out.

He weighs in at 10 pounds-what shall we call the little guy?

On a brighter note, our next giveaway starts today, the 4th, at 8 pm. Folks are already signing up. Please sign up here if you are a science fiction or fantasy fan to be considered for the 24 books being given away and the Kindle fire 7. As far as our last one, I have four more people to contact me with their addresses and I can then post who won. I’ve got all the envelopes except 4 signed and ready to go: just need the last few people.

Sign in here or on our contests page

And a word of apology-I had people from as far away as Austria, Poland, Canada, and New Zealand sign up last time, which is odd since it was only supposed to happen in the US. It appears some folks sent it to friends outside the country. I cannot send prizes outside the country due to customs and the costs of mailing. I am sorry, it isn’t possible. Please share to your friends but remember to let them know they aren’t eligible if they are outside the United States.

And do be careful out there. Life is getting stranger by the day. Pretty soon, I won’t have to write Sci/fi/. Fantasy because it will be happening all around us. And did I tell you CZlem was on special-free until the 8th, right now on Amazon?

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